Boot Camp!

For his 13th birthday last month, Nathan wanted to have an air soft battle with his buddies and brothers. Well, we decided to step it up a bit and turned it into a full on boot camp.

This was the invitation:

We invited Jake Thomas and his friend Santiago to come be the drill sergeants for our "boot camp." They looked so intimidating in the fatigues, and did a great job whipping those boys into shape.

Some more recruits.

The drill sergeants really gave those guys a workout!

Dylan designed a tough obstacle course that had the recruits crawling under a net, running through a mine field, swinging over a water feature, climbing, sliding, running through tires, a grenade toss, crawling on elbows, crossing a balance beam over water, and so forth.

It was intense! And if they didn't do it right, those tough drill instructors were right there yelling at them, dousing them with water guns, or making them do sit-ups!

And if the recruits really got out of line, they found ways to handle that too!

After the intense training session the recruits finally got to head to to mess tent for their rations: Gatorade, power bars, chips, trail mix, and every soldiers favorite feast - unheated M.R.E.s!

(The easiest entertaining ever - just toss an assortment of MREs on the table and let them try what they want.)

Yummy. The boys seemed to like what they picked, even if they couldn't figure out what in the heck they were eating. Teenage boys are so easy to please.

We didn't even need paper plates (though we did need a lot of napkins!)

After consuming their delicious rations, the whole unit was transported by military Humvee (aka, the old suburban, with the seats down in the back) to the battlefield (aka. the Thatcher's backyard) for some war games! They were having way too much fun all crammed back there, all sweaty and wet.

Then the real action began. These recruits had been well trained, and well fed, and were now ready for battle!!!

The actions was intense! As the official war reporter, I was brave enough go onto the battle field to shoot some photos before hiding in the house to wait for the cease-fire.

After the battle, everyone climbed back on the Humvee to be transported back to base where we had military issue birthday cake. Yep, that is a tank cake, number N13 (for Nathan's 13th), with, licorice treads, and the candle flame coming out of the cannon.

And yes, the inside of the cake was also camo - just so that it could be eaten without the enemy seeing them.

Happy Birthday, Private Nate! Now drop and give me ten!